Annual Critics Circle Complaints

This week a comment came in to an older post regarding the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle:

"Once again the bay area critics circle has proved itself a sham. Do these people spend any time in marin or the north bay at all. It's enough to make you want to get out of this little pond and become sashimi in a real theater community"

Well, I'd be lying if I said this was the first time, or even the 50th time, I heard such a comment. And I'm certainly no apologist for the Circle. I suspect, though, that the deal is most of these critics write for smaller papers, and their editors don't want them to review anything outside that beat. So after attending up to three shows a week in their beat, the last thing they want to do is haul ass across the Bay Area to see a show that they aren't going to review, meaning, that they won't get paid for. If this is really the deal, it's the main problem with the Circle. For better or worse, the theatre community sees the Critics Circle Award as perhaps the best in the area. The Circle members, if they want to maintain that reputation (or gain it back, depending on how you feel), should step up and see shows all over the Bay Area, otherwise their awards have no authority.

But for all the companies' and theatre workers' complaining, they still proudly announce what awards they've won in marketing materials, in bios, on websites, and so on. So the community must think that the Circle still does have authority.

(If you're lost, here's the list of this year's Critics Circle nominees and winners.)